An Exploratory Analysis of Selected Early Television Commercials Compared with Selected Recent Television Commercials.

Kagel, Richard

The characteristics of 69 award-winning television commercials from 1948 through 1958 were compared to those of 58 award-winning commercials from 1976 and 1977. The examined characteristics were type of storyline used, selling strategies, use of humor, live action versus animation, production techniques, and the depiction of blacks, women, orientals, and "rugged" men. Apparently television commercial formats have remained relatively consistent over the years, with the only noticeable change being an increase in dramatic structure. Significantly fewer animated commercials were used in the more recent period. Blacks and orientals, two groups that did not appear in any of the older commercials, were found in small percentages of the more recent ones (the orientals were depicted in stereotypical situations.) Women appeared in increasing numbers in the later commercials and were depicted as more independent than those in the earlier commercials; but they continued to be portrayed as sex symbols in some of the later commercials. The rugged, individualistic outdoorsmen so often found in older commercials were rarely found in the more recent commercials (one modern commercial was a tongue-in-cheek spoof of this "rugged" characterization). The standard length of 1948-58 commercials was 60 seconds, while the length of commercials in the more recent group was equally split between 30 and 60 seconds. The 1976 and 1977 commercials showed increases in the number of scenes per commercial. (RL)